What’s In The $1.9-Trillion COVID Rescue Package?

What is in the $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021?

Plenty for Delaware, according to Senator Chris Coons.

Coons said Wednesday that the measure which received final approval in the House of Representatives will deliver about $1.36-billion to The First State, including $1,400 direct checks to most people. It also supports vaccine distribution, school reopening, and offers grants to restaurants and other small businesses that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Expanded employment benefits are also extended through the summer.

“The American Rescue Plan is what Delaware and our country need at this moment,” Coons said. “Parents and kids are struggling as schools remain disrupted. Service sector workers are enduring prolonged joblessness. Restaurant owners are wondering whether the business will survive. The American Rescue Plan puts the full force of the federal government behind ending this pandemic and helping Delawareans recover.”

To read what’s in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, please CLICK HERE

Additional reaction was provided by the office of Senator Chris Coons:

“We are grateful to President Biden and our Congressional Delegation for the additional federal funding to support the work that Delaware is doing to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine and to continue our robust contact tracing program,” Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Molly Magarik said. “Working together, we can protect more Delawareans and move closer to a more normal life for everyone.”

“We appreciate Senator Coons for championing and advocating for restaurants,” Delaware Restaurant Association President Carrie Leishman said. “The passage of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and the other programs in this bill will support restaurants across Delaware, helping put our small businesses on the road to recovery. We also appreciate the Senate’s action in increasing the size of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to $28.6 billion, which underscores the fact that restaurants are in vital transition. This relief will help support our restaurants as they begin the long road to recovery.”

Maryland Congressman Andy Harris, R-1st, who represents the Eastern Shore, voted against the package. Harris and other Republicans have contended that only about nine-percent of the package directly addressed the public health challenge presented by COVID-19 while ‘bailing out blue states’ and making funds available to people who are in the country illegally and to prisoners.

Harris said the following in a written statement:

“One of the most morally bankrupt things this country can do is borrow money from our future generations, that are already under unprecedented debt, to pay for a liberal wishlist that’s just payback to political supporters. But that’s exactly what the Democrat-controlled House and Senate did this week.  The President should follow the advice of former Obama economic adviser Larry Summers and refuse to sign this bill that spends way too much.”